Neil E

Wow so that was the bomb proof 1UZ-FE. I had one around to 230k in a Soarer and a 3UZ to 215K in a GS and not a hint of it.

Well it could be the valve stem seals but I would say that's very rare with these engines. With regular servicing they are ultra reliable. It really needs to go to Lexus or a knowledgeable independent for a proper inspection and diagnosis.

At least one in the South East seems to be up to standard. I had an airbag recall done to the SC430 by Inchcape Lexus Guildford this week and it was a very pleasant experience. From the greeting at reception to the completion of the work they were efficient, very polite and showed genuine interest in the car. Arrived at noon with a very dirty, non-standard SC430, surrendered the key, apologized for the state of the car and all the...err...non-standard stuff, Alpine/Beatsonic/DLS amp/camera wiring, etc. I was assured 'not to worry' as the best Lexus Tech in the country was assigned to the task. Quite why I had to wait 5 minutes for a new CT200H courtesy car to be brought around to the front door from the back of the car park when there was a perfectly good V8 GSF right there ready to go, I'll never know? 5 hours later having learnt to drive a hybrid for the afternoon I picked up the SC all clean, highly polished, air bag work all done, paperwork completed, general report on the car attached and the tech had kindly fixed a clock-spring squeak behind the custom steering wheel too. I hadn't asked them to look at anything, he noticed it on the test drive. Okay I left a nice tip but was impressed that when I was leaving the service manager and the technician came out to the car for a chat. Their £38k ISF seems a bit steep but for service it's top marks from me. Oh of course it's 'Mercury Grey' probably equates to 'Special Silver' hence the inflated price.

Here's an exhaust clip. The car wasn't that cold on start up and there's still some 'smoke.' This is completely normal.

I've never heard of a 3UZ-FE needing them. Is it blue smoke indicating oil being burnt? It's perfectly normal to get some exhaust gas when it's first started up or for the first few miles, mine always has a little vapour trail when cold for a short time. If it goes away after a few minutes and isn't evident while driving normally, that sounds okay. If there is blue smoke on start up or continuous clouds of white smoke, that might indicate a problem.

Now that's a steering wheel, like that a lot.....and the car. Very jealous of the paddle shift. I had a leather IS wheel with paddles to fit but I'm a little ashamed to say I backed out when it came to the SC single stage air bag conversion. I'm sure the CF, much like wood, could be slippery. I also found that the lack of 'feel' of the thinner wooden grips on the SC, GS and LS detach the driver from the road.

The carbon fibre looks very nice but why would you want any part of the grip to be anything other than leather?

If it has been looked after and serviced correctly, it should be fine. The legendary 1UZ is good for far more than 200k, Check the mileages quoted by US owners. I sold a Soarer with 230k on it and it was still an awesome flying machine.

It's a fairly easy task to remove it. (I could provide pics but there's a youtube video for a phone car kit that shows the steps very well) It takes about 10 minutes to disconnect and remove from the car and then the unit will need to be separated from the door cover assembly. Once that's removed it's possible to begin to access the head unit and the 6 CD player/disc changer mechanism. Care needs to be taken as it's very easy to damage ribbon cables in taking it apart and in the reassembly process. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the internals, or the disassembly, I took the head out to swap it for a double din screen so I only took a quick peek and didn't take any pictures.

It's not too difficult to remove the unit and replace it with a second hand unit. Alternatively, a good car hifi shop might be prepared to remove it and attempt to resolve the fault. It's often just a CD that's stuck and the loading mechanism then needs to be checked/carefully returned to its correct position to load and unload the CDs smoothly. Huets in Brighton might help.

Indeed but why don't we see more examples of headers to really bring it alive?

Hi Robert, intermittent audio issues with those symptoms are quite common. It's often a fault with the amp but occasionally it can just be a poor connection at the head unit or the amplifier.It's rare for it to be a fault with the head unit but it can happen. The head unit is the part with the display and volume control, etc, it sends the source signal to the amplifier. The amplified signal is then sent to the speakers. The multi channel audio amplifier is usually in the boot. Is your 2005 GS a Gen 2 or Gen 3? If it's the amp, they can usually be tested/fixed by a company in Edinburgh. Huets in Brighton would be the only 'local' resource that I would recommend to help determine where the fault lies. I haven't owned a GS for a few years, (they were both GS430s so slightly different, does this diagram help?

Hi Sheridan It's a gem. It's a car that has been much admired by SC owners here and overseas. I'm sure you will get great pleasure from it. Is it just the front that are rubbing? Looking at my own slightly lowered SC, there's very little clearance for the tyres so if the arch gap loss for yours is 13mm it would be very close indeed. It needs investigating properly but if the wheel width and offset are okay, fitting the lower profile 245 30 20 tyres to the front should do the trick.

David, what a great video diary. That brought back a few memories. I'm glad I haven't done one. Apart from revealing the racing line, it would just go from one distillery to the next.

Firstly....absolutely awesome SC430, I remember that car from years ago, a serious amount of work has gone into that project. It might just be the most powerful and quickest SC in the country. It's the only one I know of with S and S headers and it has Lux Link too, not that I'm jealous....much. Okay I've stopped drooling. The caliper clearance does look tight but I would expect 19s to fit over them. It's probably worth a chat with Richard Walker. He has a Lexus wheel fetish and is local to you. I don't know how easy it is to adjust the Teins but I agree with Peter's suggestion, start with trying to soften the dampers. With regard to relative ride quality, it's not going to waft along like an LS but I run staggered 19s 8.5 front, 9.5 rear and on all but the worst surfaces it's pretty good considering the lack of side wall so I would expect similar from your 20s. My tyres are 245 35 19 front and 285 30 19 rear, they don't rub at all. I change the settings quite often but find the best ride/handling compromise with the MeisterRs is stiff at the front and soft at the rear. The spring rates on the Teins may be different, you may have to experiment a little or try the US owners for best settings. Ah!....some time later, another nod to Peter.....after doing a little 'archive research' (more jealousy - it has a Lextreme torque converter) assuming the tyres are still 245 35 20 front on a 9 inch rim and 275 30 20 rear on a 10.5 inch rim, the front may be just contacting the arch liners due to the increase in the overall tyre height. If the info is correct, I think there's also a small but important rolling circumference difference to consider. The standard set up is 245 40 18 on 8 inch rims. Check all of the information and put the details into the tyre size calculator to see the results. http://www.willtheyfit.com/ It would be a shame to have to change the wheels. If the tyres are only lightly making contact with the arch liners it might be possible to modify them enough to clear the tyres. By removing the wheels you should be able to see if/where they're making contact as the arch liners mark easily.

Once you get distracted by the scenery and the awesome roads, I think my opening bid would be quite a challenge over 2 days. For most of the year and most hours of the day, the roads North of Inverness have very light traffic. Avoid the school holidays and be aware of the ferry times. Spring or late Summer/early Autumn would be my recommendation. Lighter traffic, fewer midges, more accommodation availability, etc. It's great at any time of year but winter tyres could be appropriate up to mid April-ish. As for warmer weather, just be prepared for anything and be pleasantly surprised if it's dry and clear. Taking an SC430 to the highlands is the definition of optimism.

I think it would be good to advertise it in the general forum but I fear the list of ISFs and the obligatory silver headgear may be slightly intimidating. Unless they read it regularly, most members won't appreciate that the ISF section is less about track day red mist and all about paint colour. Completely agree with this David, Scotland is a big country but it would be difficult to keep everyone happy, more of a 'holiday tour' than a car club road trip perhaps? Being serious, (just for one paragraph) unless it's on your doorstep, most would want to do the NC500 at their own pace. If you know and have sampled what Scotland has to offer already, it could be just a long fun weekend jaunt with like-minded enthusiasts but if it's your first time with some serious miles to do to get there, say from Kent or Devon, then you might want to fly to Inverness or incorporate it into a much longer stay using your own Lexus. I would suggest settling on a proposed itinerary acceptable to the core group and go from there. So if the plan is to cover the ground over 2 days, just to get it started, open/load maps and try this. Thursday 7.00 p.m. Dunblane Hydro/Stirling Premier Inn (for those with a long journey North) http://www.doubletreedunblane.com/ Friday 7.30 a.m. Depart Stirling (Southern convoy) Friday 11.00 a.m. Inverness Halfords car park, re-fueled and ready to go. Friday 1.00 p.m. car park top of high mountain pass of the cattle to Applecross - Guinness free Pic-nic. Friday 6.00 p.m. Ullapool Caledonian/Argyle Hotel. (avoid the Loopallu weekend) Saturday 10.00 a.m depart Ullapool Saturday 12.00 noon Kylesku - lunch at the bridge/Kylesku Hotel Saturday 2.30 p.m. Durness Saturday 4.30 p.m. John O'Groats Saturday 7.30 p.m. Shore of Loch Ness The Clansman Hotel Sunday Enjoy another route out to the west or journey home. The timings are very rough. I'm not the best judge of time. Mostly, I listen properly to the rally-style pace notes provided by my wife on such adventures so we make good progress but occasionally, when I'm feeling brave, I slow down or even stop to take in the scenery instead of concentrating on the stage finish line. With this plan, if some members couldn't make the Friday meet, they might consider starting at Inverness early Saturday morning to join the group at Ullapool. It's a little over an hour from Inverness to Ullapool via the direct route. If the dates chosen by the group work for me, I would probably try to incorporate it into a 1 or 2 week long holiday staying at a comfortable cottage within an hour of Inverness. If you enjoy driving, having a well chosen base is a good alternative to hotel hopping.

I would suggest that if it's a weekend trip, southerners consider travelling Thursday evening to Central Scotland and then depending on what people want to do, go from Inverness mid-morning aiming to stay somewhere like Ullapool on the West Coast, Friday evening. stay in/near Inverness on Saturday night to travel back on Sunday. Adding at least an extra day to the tour to return on Monday would be sensible. The NC500 can be done in two days or even one if you're really hardcore and stick to the quicker bits but there's so much to see and so many great sections to take in (scenic/steep/fast/twisty/challenging) add in stops for refueling and photos, etc...two days will be a blur. If the plan is to occasionally venture slightly off the route to include a few points of interest, some of the single tracks are very slow and narrow with vertical drops and unforgiving rock-faces. Some sections you will drive and want to go back and do again, others you may just be glad to survive with bodywork intact.

Depends on dates and what the plan is but I could be up for this. I'm frequently north of the border, indeed I drove back from Aviemore last night. If the starting point is to be Inverness then Stirling or Perth might work as a southern meeting point to form a convoy. Apart from the dual carriageway sections, the A9 has average speed cameras from Stirling to Inverness so it's ideal for keeping a convoy in formation. Midges are only a problem in the warmer months, some people use hats with face nets if they are out walking or gardening but you should be able to outrun the midges in an ISF. Irish stout is a well known midge repellent.

Slight thread hijack, I think a separate NC500 thread is required. Phil The route from Vancouver to Calgary, now that's a trip with lakes and mountains on another scale. Did you go further North too?

Here's a memorable spot, Kylesku - a favourite stopping point on the NC500.

I would check the amplifier has power and connection to the head unit first. Test to see if you can switch to the fader and tone levels.

I've done the NC500 and many sections of it in recent years and long before it gained that identification. It's a bit like releasing the V8 into the wild. Best roads in the UK are North and West of Inverness. I would recommend the early Autumn when there's less tourist traffic on the road and don't be surprised if you're pushing the ISF hard in the twisty bits only to suddenly find the rear view mirror full of local builders van hurrying home for tea. Some of the high Alpine passes with the long tunnel sections stick in my mind and the Alaska Highway is a contender but the most memorable road trip for me was Lands End to John O' Groats.

Yes Mark we were at Bluewater in August. I think I've run out of things to modify on the car now so it will probably look just the same. I must admit I do like silver, my previous LS and GS430 were both silver. Paint finish does seem to be a topic of conversation with ISF owners.

Sorry to disappoint the silver obsessed, its dark grey.